Rotary engine



Oct. 30, 1945. H. F. WOLSTENHOLME 2,337,964

ROTARY ENGINE Filed Aug. 8, 1944 3 Sheets-Sheet l ORNEY.

H. F. WOLSTENHOLME ROTARY ENGINE Filed Aug. 8, 1944 Oct. 30, 1945,.

v INVENTOR, Ha rr rWolrflnh lme, BY

ATTORNEY.

Oct-30, 1945- H. F. WOLSTENHOLME 2,387,954

ROTARY ENGINE Filed Aug. 8, 1944 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 ATTORNEY.

Patented Oct. 30, 1945 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ROTARY ENGINE Harry F. Wolstenholme, Paterson, N. J.

Application August 8, 1944, Serial No. 548,605

4 Claims.

A known type of rotary fluid engine, by which I mean either one that acts to impel, or one driven by, a fluid (see, for instance, my Patents Nos. 1,795,750; 2,124,327; 2,142,706; 2,222,133; 2,284,- 186; and 2,352,877) includes two elements, one of which is rotary and one of which has a cylinder formed annular and with an opening extending continuously around the main axis of the engine and the other of'which, being the rotor, is rotary and coaxial with and has an abutment or abutments in the cylinder; 9, member oscillatory coaxially with and having a piston in the cylinder; and means operatively connecting said elements and connected to said member, for oscillating the latter.

In such type of engine the element, or rotor, having the abutment or abutments and the oscillator member having the piston or pistons were each formed as a unit extending from the exterior to the interior of the cylinder through said opening wherefore, obviously, it was impossible to hold the portions of the cylinder immediately both sides of said opening against movement apart as an incident of expansion of the cylinder by the contained heat, wherefore leakage would occur via said opening.

This fault I overcome as follows, stated generally: The stator has an annular portion including, coaxially related to each other, an annular cylinder and an annular channel or race continuously open to each other, and the part of said portion which provides the race is split remote from the cylinder and continuously around the common axis of the cylinder and race and thereby provides margins which may be suitably held together against movement apart. Exterior of and coaxial with the cylinder and race are driven rotor and oscillator elements; arranged in the race, and respectively having an abutment or abutments and a piston or pistons extending into the cylinder, are driving rotor and oscillator elements; and there are rotary transmission members, journaled in the stator on fixed axes, one of which is in tractive engagement with the driving and driven rotor elements and the other in tractive engagement with the driving and driven oscillator elements. In the preferred form the means which binds said margins together binds them in settling contact with the driving elements, whereby the interior of the cylinder is completely sealed ofi. Since the invention' is applicable to an engine that acts to impel or pump fluid as well as to one that is impelled by fluid I do not wish to .be limited to presence of the oscillator. l

Two forms of the engine, of the type that is impelled, are shown and described herein, one in which the transmission members have their axes radial of, and the other in which said members have their axes parallel with, the main axis of the engine.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view showing the first-above indicated form of the engine;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view on line 2--2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the other form of the engine; and

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view of the lower part of the engine in a vertical plane through projection Ia: and showing the gear 81) removed.

Figs. 1 and 2.-'Ifo provide the stator there are the following parts: Two concave-convex heads I and 2 which at their outer perimeters are respectively formed with the halves Ia and 2a of an annular cylinder, generally denoted 3, divided in a plane bisecting it transversely of the axis around which it is formed annular, such halves of the cylinder having laterally projecting laminated flanges lb and 2b by which they may be secured together, as by bolts or rivets (not shown) penetrating said flanges; the cylinder halves respectively have the intake and exhaust ports lo and 2c. The heads together form a housing providing what I term the working space of the statorfand they support ball-bearings 4 coaxial with the cylinder. One head may have a removable cover 5 afiordingaccess'to said space. The heads have annular flanges Id and 2d concentric with and projecting here inwardly from the cylinder, generally L-shaped in section and thereby providing between them the mentioned race 6. The portion of the stator which includes the cylinder and race is treated as continuously split, here inward of the cylinder, thereby providing opposed margins formed by the flanges, which. may be secured against movement apart by bolts 1. At equally spaced intervals circum ferentially thereof the flanges provide openings :0, Fig. 4, for the transmission members, as gears 8b and 8a, which thus have their peripheries exposed to the race and the exterior thereof, as shown in Fig. 1, being journaled on studs 81' set in projections 21: and In: of the flanges and in the heads and extending radially of the main axis of the engine. The openings at are positioned each in a radius between the intake and exhaust ports, or where the pressure and suction in the cylinder are respectively the minimum and the maximum.

In any way made fast to head 2 is contained therein an internally toothed. sun-gear 9, spaced from the head by a collar Hi.

In th'e bearings i and penetrating the collar and sun gear isjournaled the main shaft l2.

Keyed to this shaft are two spiders i3 and M forming with the shaft the driven rotor element of a train that includes the driving ro-to-r element and transmission members. The spiders provide bearings I31: and Ida: in their rims 63a and Ma, respectively, the bearings of both spiders being equally spacedfrom the shaft and each other and those of one spider being alined with those of the other. Each two thus-alined bearings receive a shaft l5 having at one end a, planet-gear IS in mesh with the sun-gear and at the other iend a crank Ilia. As will be apparent, spider I3 is not an indispensable portion of the'drive'n rotor element.

Oscillatory around shaft l2, between spiders l3 and IA, is a spider ll forming the driven oscillator element of the train-thatincludes the driving oscillator element and transmission members.

Therims Ma'and Ha are soformed as first to be diverted and then extend toward th surroundingportions of the stator heads, as:shown in Fig. 1, and they are formed to provide gears Mb and l '!b facing each other and concentric with shaft l2, being-in-mesh with-gears 8.

Pivoted links 1% connect the cranks I5a of shafts l5 with the flange l'la of spider [-1.

.At I are diagrammatically indicated the igniters.

In the operation of the engine the parts lZ- I3M are rotated as a unit constantly in one directionand the spider ll, while-undergoing rotation in the same direction, is alsooscillated, as usual in this type of engine. (Of course it is conceivableas inany engine of this type, that, as between what I :herein term the stator" and the rotary driven element, the former should rotate and the latter remainstationary.)

In the race-6 are arranged in face toface relation two ring gears 59 and 23 concentric with the-main .axis of the .engineand having continuousseriesof teeth Ito and 20a, they constituting the mentioned driving rotor and oscillator elements, they respectively having abutments 2! andpistons ZZarranged in the cylinder and preferably, though -not necessarily, having the forms shownand described in my Patent No. 2,352,877, dated-July 4, 1944.

In so-far as the rotary and oscillatory motions of the abutments and pistons are concerned the engine operates the same as many case of its type in which-the rotor and the oscillator, hav- 2 ing the abutments and pistons, respectively, are each formed as a unit. Essentially, the change involved in the present invention contemplates forming what was :a unit in each-case so as to comprise'a driving and a driven element, witlna rotary transmission member, as 8a and 8b, between them occupying a fixed radial relation to the stator; thereby the mentioned continuous opening or slot .by whichthe unitary rotor and oscillatorrextended from the exterior to the interior of the-cylinderisomitted and .it is possible, as'by the bolts 1,.to bind the aforesaid margins of the-stator, continuously iof themselves, against movement'apart :as an incident of expansion of the-cylinder, as here in-close relation to the closely related driving-elements 19 and so that the space of the-cylinder is sealed off.

Fz'g. 3.Here 23and 24 are the stator heads of sections providing the cylinder halves 25 and the flanges 25 which form the race 2? in which are the driving rotor element 28 and the driving oscillator element 29 of the trains, such elements having in this case teeth 28a and 29a at their inner peripheries. Here the transmission members 30 and 3 I, in mesh with the driving elements 28 and 29, respectively, are journaled on axes parallel with the main axis of the engine in lugs, as 32, of the stator. The driven rotor element is formed by the spider 33 and the main shaft 34 to which it is keyed and which is journaled at 35 in the stator, thesp-ider rim being continuo-usly toothed, as in the form first described, but peripherally, and in mesh with the element 353. The driven oscillator element is a spider 35 oscillative on the shafti'and having its periphery also toothed and in mesh with the transmission element 3 I. In the spider 33 are journaled shafts such as 31, corresponding to shafts I5, parallel with the main axis and having cranks, as 38 which, through links 39, are connected with the spider 35 substantially the same as .in the .formiirst described. Eachshaft 31 has a pinion 43 which is-drivenIfrom-a gear, such as M (shown at the lower part of Fig. 3) with which it meshes, and which-has formedasa unit with it .a pinion T42.in.mesh with'the sungear43 fast to thestator, all substantially the sameasin .my.Patent No. 2,284,186.

-I wish it .to be understood .thatin the broad aspect of my invention the following .conditio-ns are not indispensable: That there be necessarily present to coact with the moto -means '(such as l48al9) oscillator means (such as .i'l28b- 23); that there be more than one abutment and piston; that inany complete rotationof the rotor means there be more than one cycleof operations comprisingintake, compression, explosion haust; -.or that the split (i. e., between the margins of the stator) the in a ,plane perpendicular to the main axis of the engine rather than some other locationand consequently that the transmission gear or:each such gear have. its axis radially instead of otherwise related-to .themain axis.

Having thusfully described my invention, what I claim is:'

1. In combinationa .rotaryengine stator having an annular portion including, coaxially lated to'each other,.an annular cylinder andan annular racecontinuously opento each othenthe part of said portion which providesthe race being split remote from the cylinderand continuously around the common axis of saidcylinder-andr-ace and thereby providing opposed margins, means to confine said margins against movement apart, a'driven rotor element'coaxial with an'diexterior of the cylinder,-an-annular driving rotor-element coaxial with the .cylinder and arranged in said race and having :an abutment extendinginto the cylinden-anda rotary transmission member'journaled'in-thestator ona fixed axis and in tractive engagement with the driving and driven elements.

2. The combination-set forth in-claim .1 characterized by said marginsand drivenlel-ementcm acting to seal off substantial f'flow from =the cylinder'ofthe fluid content thereof.

3. In aninternal-combustionengine, the riombination of a statorhaving an annularportion including, coaxiallyrelated to each other, 1.2.11 annularcylinder and an annular race continuously open to each other, the part of said-portionwhich provides the race being split remote from theicyk inderand continuously around the common-axis of said cylinder-andrace-and thereby providing opposed margins, means to confine saidmargins ments and the other in tractive engagement with l the driving and driven oscillator elements, and means, operatively connecting the stator and the driven rotor element and operatively connected to the oscillator element, for oscillating the latter.

4. The combination set forth in claim 3 characterized by said margins and the driving elements coacting to seal off substantial flow from the cylinder of the fluid content thereof.

HARRY F. WOLSTENHOLME. 

